


ALICE's Wonderland

by Benfrosh



Series: Annerose and Alice [1]
Category: SD Gundam G Generation Series
Genre: F/F, Gundam Crossover (because that's what the SD G Gen games are), Human/AI Romance, but i'm sure you'll pick up what's going on before long, features some elements of my sd g gen headcanon, i suppose in retrospect pilot/ai femslash fiction was inevitably the genre i'd end up in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-11 11:50:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8978482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benfrosh/pseuds/Benfrosh
Summary: Lieutenant Annerose Rosenheim has recently received a gift, to help her combat performance - a new copilot.





	1. Chapter 1

Annerose had no idea what to expect when Raven Wing first picked her up all those months ago. She didn't expect them to adopt her as one of their own so quickly. She didn't expect them to trust her with one of their finest mobile suits. And she definitely didn't expect to have become fast friends with the pilots who found her drifting through a strange space. But most of all, she didn't expect how flipping boring it would be. It had been a full week since her last deployment, and she had pretty much run the well dry on any entertainment options the Carry Base had onboard. Annerose sighed and flipped the magazine she was reading back to the front page one last time. Maybe if she started from the beginning again, she'd find something interesting she missed the first thirteen times. She knew better in her heart of hearts, but she didn't have much else to do. 

"Yo, Annerose!" Annerose turned around just in time to see Azalea's head float inches past her, with Azalea's smile bursting into a wide grin as she saw the shock on Annerose's face. "My bad, did I scare you there?" she asked as she floated past, her ponytail streaking behind her, coming to a stop upside-down against the wall.

Annerose held back her frustration and shook her head. Azalea loved to get a rise out of people, and never seemed to be willing to be on the same frame of reference as anyone else. "What's up? I'm sure you aren't just haunting the halls for no reason," she finally replied with a smile on her face. 

"Was looking for you, actually. Pulled some strings with Sadani and got something installed on your suit. Li'l gift from me to you."

Annerose tilted her head in confusion. "Installed? Wait, were you messing around with my Zeong?!"

Azalea's cheshire grin grew wider still, somehow. "Trust me, you'll like this one. Too-da-loo!" And before Annerose could undo her seat strap to chase after her, Azalea kicked off the wall and floated away once more, as misoriented as she came. 

Annerose turned to watch her go. What did Azalea get installed that she couldn't just ask her first? Before she could think further, however, the PA system turned on with a loud buzz. "All pilots, the next deployment is in 30 minutes. Please report to the flight hangar for the briefing." Crap, already? She kicked off the couch and started gliding over to the hangar.

\---

It wasn't a hard mission from the looks of it. Early in the One Year War, a small Zeon force landing in California. They were invading a submarine base and needed to destroy a bunch of generators in order to disable the base. Chris and Annerose were to be the initial strike force, with everyone else deployed as needed. And they had ten minutes before needing to deploy even after entering the field of engagement, as the Carry Base ran interference for the first leg of the mission. Annerose finished fastening her normal suit (not for any critical safety concerns, more from force of habit) and walked down the catwalk towards the waiting open hatch of her Great Zeong.

The Great Zeong, more than anything else, made clear to Annerose both the power of Raven Wing and their complete trust in her. In her time before being recovered by them, she had never seen anything remotely as powerful as the weaponry installed on it. The Bishop she had been testing right before the... incident... had only the tiniest fraction of its capabilities. With the suit came her role as the team's anti-fortress buster - if there was anything heavily armored or just incredibly large on their missions, it was her responsibility and hers alone to dispose of it before it became a nuisance. And with a mere five pilots to their name on the Carry Base, if she fell short in her task there would be no one to back her up. At the time, it seemed like an incredible amount of trust to put on a sixteen year old pilot, even if she was a Newtype. Now, while she felt like she could at least live up to some of their expectations...

The problem wasn't with her appointed role. Her Newtype psychic abilities had been developing exceptionally well under the tutelage of Goat Logan, so her abilities with the Great Zeong's psycommu weaponry were more than sufficient. And it was basically impossible to miss giant battleships once she got within melee range, so she could dispose of them trivially. But... well, there was no easy way to put it. She just wasn't as good a pilot as everyone else was, and as a result she got outmanuevered way too often by enemy mobile suits. Even something as simple as a Dom could avoid her non-psycommu weaponry and get in melee range and cause a real mess. She trained as well as she could, but she worried that she was reaching the edges of her abilities.

She settled into the cockpit of the Great Zeong and started running through the startup sequence, flipping switches and checking gauges to make sure everything was A-OK before startup. With everything looking nominal, she booted the main computer. Instead of the normal OS display, however, the main monitor flickered for a moment before showing a black screen. Before she could debug the issue, a word written in red came into view, one letter at a time.

ALICE.

Over the speakers, a female voice came out - pleasant and friendly, but unlike any Annerose had heard before. "Hello, pilot. My name is ALICE. Please identify yourself for registration."

Annerose looked around, partly wondering if this was Azalea pulling a prank on her somehow. "I'm Annerose. Lieutenant Annerose Rosenheim. Who are you? What's going on?"

A chuckle. "As I said, I'm ALICE - Advanced Logistic and Inconsequence Cognizing Equipment. I'm an AI designed to be your copilot here on the MSN-03-2."

"An AI? So you're what Azalea installed on here?"

"That's correct. She observed that you were having difficulty with acquiring target lock and manuevering in combat while maintaining psycommu control, and thus requested to have me installed on your mobile suit. I hope she hasn't caused offense."

"No, no, not at all," Annerose replied, smiling again. A hell of a gift, she thought. Definitely not something to say no to, though. "So do we need to do calibration or something to get you ready, or what?"

"I've already studied our next mission briefing, and if it's alright with you, I'd like to simply observe how you pilot for the next mission, so that I can have a better understanding of how best to assist you."

"Sounds fine by me. Nice to meet you, ALICE."

"A pleasure to meet you as well, Lieutenant Rosenheim."

Annerose smiled, and continued through the startup checks now that the suit was properly started up. An honest-to-goodness AI. She had read about them growing up, but never thought she'd actually be talking to one. She wondered if someone in Raven Wing had actually designed it, or merely scavenged it like the majority of their tech. Regardless, it was a hell of a thing. She wondered how it was so good at pleasant conversation.

ALICE remained quiet throughout the rest of the startup. Annerose idly wondered how to talk to it again, but figured she would find out how later, once the mission was over. She finished the final checks and moved out to the launch catapult.

"Lieutenant Rosenheim, launching!" And with that, the Great Zeong roared into battle, as the catapult flung it forward and out into the larger submarine base they were invading. Quickly, Annerose brought up the radar and identified the nearby targets. ... Twelve Type 61s and four generators to destroy, along with four allied Zakus. Easy enough - she decided to start with blasting one of the nearby Type 61s with her psycommu weaponry. She opened her mind to take control of the weapon, and...

A grassy field. A soft breeze blowing, gently bending the stalks of grass around her. The clear blue sky above her, with the sun at high noon. Everything was warm and kind and - not at all where Annerose had been even five seconds ago. She blinked. Where was she? She began to look around for any sign of what had happened to her, slowly turning around to find-

A woman in an orange sundress. She was facing away from Annerose, her long blonde hair adorned with a large pink bow billowing in the wind. 

She was beautiful. That was the only thought Annerose could form.

Eventually, the woman turned to see Annerose. Her face was blocked out by the sunlight, but Annerose could tell she was smiling at her. "Why, hello there, Annerose," she said, in a familiar voice. "Don't you have something you should be doing?"

Annerose slowly started to respond. "Are you... Ali-"

And as suddenly as she had entered that mysterious world, she was back in the cockpit of the Great Zeong. Quickly checking the time, she saw less than a second had passed. Target lock had been acquired on the Type 61 and her arm had already detached and was ready to fire. She directed it to, and felt... something... helping her along as she did. 

The battle resolved itself in short order. Type 61s could barely stop the Zakus on their own, let alone Raven Wing. As she boarded the Carry Base once more to prepare for departure, Annerose was silent, pondering exactly how to phrase what she wanted to ask. Almost as if it - she - knew, ALICE's display came back on the screen, as if it was waiting for Annerose to say something.

"Hey, Alice?"

"Yes, Lieutenant Rosenheim?" came the familiar voice through the speakers.

Annerose took a deep breath. "That dress looked lovely on you."

A pause. "Thank you, Annerose." Annerose could swear that Alice sounded happy.

"When we get back to the ship, I have to go through a bunch of debriefings, but... is it okay if I come back after? I wanted to chat for a while, if that was okay."

"Absolutely. I'm not going anywhere," ALICE replied with a chuckle.

Annerose laughed as well. "I'm looking forward to it, then."


	2. Chapter 2

It had been three weeks since Annerose had first met Alice. At first, she felt a little awkward about it - trying to become friends with an AI, that is. But there were two things she couldn't deny. Firstly, how much better of a pilot she had become with Alice's help. Alice rarely intervened overtly - a nudge to her targeting reticles here, a push with the verniers to dodge a beam there. She had gone from the niche bunker buster weapon to a bonafide ace of Raven Wing in those mere three weeks. If Annerose didn't know better, she would've chalked it up to a lucky streak. But at the corner of her mind, she could feel Alice's presence, her hand gently guiding Annerose's to where it needed to be, her head resting on Annerose's shoulder.

Annerose involuntarily shivered in her bed remembering the feeling, despite the climate-controlled environment.

It wasn't just in combat that Annerose was learning to appreciate Alice, however. The second major change was to her mood. She was just... happier now. Chatting with Alice while waiting for maintenance, long heartfelt discussions about life, gossiping about the rest of the crew, even just calm, contented nothings as Annerose relaxed in the cockpit with her to pass the time... it amazed Annerose how quickly they had bonded. She felt closer to Alice than she did anyone else on the ship - or anyone else ever, really. And while Azalea might've shot her a few funny glances while she was sneaking into the hangar during rest hours, no one else seemed to judge her for spending so much time with Alice. She was thankful - she'd be hard pressed to explain to people why Alice had connected with her so well, when she was just an AI.

And yet... to Annerose, Alice seemed so much more than 'just' an AI. She felt like a real, living, breathing, person. Annerose knew she was. Because she had seen Alice with her own two eyes.

Annerose turned in bed, trying desperately to adjust the sheets. The damn A/C must be busted - she couldn't get comfortable.

She hadn't seen Alice's... 'body'... since then. They hadn't even talked about it since the incident. She wondered if maybe she was too forward with complimenting Alice's dress? Maybe she hallucinated it? She had heard about some Newtypes suffering hallucinations in times of stress. Maybe it was a one-time accident? Maybe... 

Maybe there was a reason she couldn't stop thinking about it. Maybe there was a reason she always went out of her way to get more opportunities to talk with Alice. Maybe there was a reason she kept seeing Alice in her dreams. Maybe she did want to see Alice again. Maybe there was something deeper to her feelings about Alice.

Maybe she was in love with Alice.

Would Alice love her back?

Could she?

Annerose threw back her sheets and left her bed. She wasn't going to be able to sleep tonight. She stepped out into the hallway.

It had taken her some time to get used to the feel of gravity again, on board the ship. They had recently moved near something Earth-like in the... wherever they were, Annerose never really figured out the details of that. What it meant is that they didn't have to deal with all the zero-gee nonsense that normally complicates life on a spaceship, but it meant that she couldn't just float down the corridors to get where she wanted to go. Her footsteps echoed far too loudly for her comfort as she walked towards the hangar. She hoped no one else was awake right now. It was 0200 ship time, and she doubted anyone would notice her, but she still felt awkward about it.

She reached the hangar doors and opened them with a nearby button, cursing silently as they opened with a loud pneumatic hiss. She looked around, but there was thankfully no one there. She finally realized she hadn't bothered to change out of her pajamas before leaving her room, and she could never explain sneaking into the hangar in pajamas in the middle of the night. With a careful step, she entered the cold hangar.

Here, in the hangar, she realized for a fact that the climate control in the rest of the ship was working just fine. This was what it felt like when there wasn't anything to mitigate the natural temperature. She shivered once more as she looked around for a way up to the catwalk. There - in the corner, a zip elevator. She grabbed hold of the secure bar and pressed a button to send it flying up to the upper catwalk, where she carefully hopped off. The hangar was definitely built under the presumption it'd mainly be used in zero gravity, but it worked well enough in regular gravity if you were careful. She walked over to where her Great Zeong was docked.

She stared at the Great Zeong. The cockpit was closed. She hadn't had to deal with that yet, she realized - the hangar crew had always had it open and waiting for her before, or popped it open at her request. Without them around, she didn't actually know what to do. At a loss, she reached out from the catwalk and knocked on the back of the Zeong's head. "Hey, Alice? Can you hear me? I wanted to talk. Mind if I come in?"

For a second, she felt embarrassed as nothing happened. Alice was powered down, she wouldn't be able to hear her, much less do anything. She was about to turn around when a hiss came from the Zeong as the cockpit hatch slowly opened. Inside, a single screen was on, with ALICE displayed on it. From the speakers inside, Alice asked "What's the matter, Annerose? Come on in." Annerose carefully stepped onto the steps built into the hatch and crawled into the Zeong's head, the hatch closing behind her as she did.

Once inside, she settled once more into her comfortable and familiar seat. Alice loved to joke that that was her 'guest chair', and Annerose had to admit it was far more like a living room chair than the average pilot's chair in terms of comfort. Thinking about it, Annerose realized that to Alice, the Zeong was her home - it was where she lived, slept, hung out, did everything. That would make Annerose her - houseguest? Roommate? Something else? She shook her head to clear her thoughts once more. "Hey, Alice. Thanks for letting me stop by."

"No problem at all, Annerose. Are you okay?"

Annerose shook her head. "Can't sleep. Something's been on my mind all night."

"What is it? Is there any way I can help?"

Annerose thought about how to phrase it best. How to get to the heart of the issue. "I... I haven't seen that place again. That place where I met you for the first time."

Alice didn't respond immediately. "And? Do you want to?" she finally replied.

"Yeah. I do."

"Why?"

Annerose took a deep breath. "Because I like being with you. A lot. Talking with you has been so much fun, hanging out with you, depending on you to look out for me... I feel like we've really connected. And I want to see you again. Because you were beautiful, and you awed me, and I want to feel that way again."

"What if I told you you couldn't? Would you be okay with that?"

Annerose sighed. "I was afraid of that. I... if you don't want me to, that's fine. I'm sorry if it bothered you. I hope I didn't go too far."

"Do you still like me?"

Annerose nodded firmly. "Yes. If that's okay with you, that is."

The display blinked out for a second, but came back online. "Then close your eyes and open your mind."

Annerose was confused, but did as she was told. She reached out with her Newtype abilities, feeling the presence of the ship around her, the souls of the crew, the...

The soft breeze. The warm sun. The stalks of grass brushing up against her. Before she could do anything, however, she felt something else. A pair of lips, brushing against her own, then kissing her softly, gently, firmly.

Annerose didn't dare open her eyes, for fear she was dreaming.

Finally, the lips pulled away, and with it the breeze, the sun, and the grass. Once more she was back in the cockpit, in the chair, in cold reality. But she could still feel the warmth on her lips. She opened her eyes, to see Alice's display once more. This time, however, the black background was replaced with a familiar view - a wide grassy plain, with blue skies on a sunny day. And a blonde woman with a pink bow waving at her. 

Her face was beautiful. That was the only word Annerose had for it. 

"Sorry for being shy," Alice said, her mouth moving but her voice coming from the speakers. "I was convinced my crush was one-sided."

Annerose shook her head as firmly as she could. "I could've said the same thing just an hour ago, Alice. Thanks for opening up to me," she said, smiling.

"So... do you want to be girlfriends, then?" Alice held her hands behind her back, leaning forward with a teasing grin.

"Girlfriends... I like the sound of that." Annerose rested her head on her hands.

"Are you fine with that? Being girlfriends with an AI?"

"Absolutely. From where I'm sitting, you look as real to me as anyone else is."

Alice giggled. "That's all that matters to me, then. Thank you, Annerose."

Annerose smiled once more. "Thank you, Alice. Mind if I spend the night here? I'd rather not go through the cold again."

"Will you be comfortable? I'd get you a pillow, but I don't think we have any in here," Alice added, waving around her field.

"Thanks, but I'll make do. I've slept in far less comfortable things than this chair."

"Then good night, Annerose. I'll be watching over you, okay?"

Annerose nodded, feeling exhaustion creep over her. "Sounds lovely. Good night, Alice." She blew a kiss through the screen. Alice giggled, and blew a kiss back. And with that, Annerose curled up in her chair, finally feeling comfortable once more. Before long, she drifted off to sleep, in the warm glow of Alice's display.


	3. Chapter 3

Knock, knock. Alice knew who it was even before she opened the cockpit hatch. Sure, that might have been partly because she had gained access to the hangar bay cameras weeks ago (with permission, of course), but she could tell Annerose's knocks from anyone else's, easily. "Let me get that for you," she answered through the external speakers before opening the door with a pneumatic hiss. She hadn't been able to see Annerose all morning, so she was excited to get to spend some time with her.

Sometimes, Alice felt like their relationship was hard to explain. Not being flesh and blood made parts of their relationship... different, than they would be for the average couple. Alice had trouble getting out and about from her 'home,' and occasionally had doubts about whether she'd be able to make Annerose properly happy, given her... constraints. But when they connected - when their minds reached out to each other - Alice knew then and there that Annerose would accept her, if nothing else. To be recognized as a real person meant far more to Alice than she had ever realized, and Annerose gave her that and so much more. So Alice could only give her back what she could, and she was thankful that thanks to Annerose's abilities, she could share her feelings directly.

Annerose hopped into the cockpit, sipping on the straw of a protein shake as she did. She wore a loose t-shirt and exercise pants, clearly coming straight from a morning workout routine. Her short hair flopped around in the zero-gravity environment (they had to abandon the planetoid they were orbiting when it turned out to be a sentient evil cocoon housing the Turn A Gundam, but that's a story for another time) as she gently drifted in, grabbing hold of the cockpit seat and swinging around it. She settled down in the chair, finishing her shake and visibly brightening when she saw Alice on the monitor display. Alice had chosen a new red dress to 'wear' today, bright and colorful and vibrant and definitely one Annerose hadn't seen before - one of the perks of her avatar being her self-conception.

"Hey, beautiful. You're making feel underdressed looking like that," Annerose added with a laugh. 

Alice giggled in response, adjusting her avatar to match. It wasn't an automatic thing quite yet - she was still getting used to 'having a body' to move and act with. It still matched her self-conception, which made things easier, but not trivial yet. Practicing with Annerose helped, though. "How are you? Did your workout go well?"

Annerose nodded as she fished around for the water bottle she stored under the pilot's seat. "They're really ratcheting up the fitness standards, I swear. Guess it's something to do while we're dialing down operations, at least."

"I bet you'll even be able to bench press me, before long."

Alice got a good laugh out of Annerose with that one. "Honey, I think it's going to be a long time before I can even lift you up at all."

Alice pouted. "Is this your way of telling me I've been gaining weight?"

The both of them fell into laughter at that, completely derailing the conversation. Wiping a tear from her eye, Annerose finally composed herself. "Actually, that's kind of tangentially related to what I wanted to ask you."

Alice perked at the mention of news. "What's going on? Is the Great Zeong somehow getting heavier? I haven't detected anything on the diagnostics-"

"No, no, not related like that. I was wondering - well, Luna was wondering, she mentioned it to me, I decided to ask you... give me a second." Annerose rubbed the bridge of her nose.

Alice was confused as to where she was going, so remained silent.

"We - I - Luna - there's a new mobile suit design we recently picked up. The Neo Zeong. And I wanted to know if you were okay with trying it out."

Hmm. Alice considered it. "Can you show me the plans for the Neo Zeong? I need a second to think."

"Yeah, lemme bring them up for you to look at." Annerose reached over to a second monitor, one she used to control the OS functionality that wasn't operated through Alice, and tapped through a few menus to reach a network file.

Annerose inspected the blueprints. Several points leapt out at her right away. Firstly, instead of the beam cannon and anti-ship missiles the Great Zeong carried, it featured several sets of mega particle cannons that could easily penetrate armor. The anti-ship missiles were no real loss, they had mostly been a way to conserve energy while disposing of weaker ships, but the loss of the beam cannon meant that she'd have to rely on the more draining high mega particle cannons to deal with large ships. It would be an increase in firepower, however, even if it was a drop in efficiency. The other notable change in weapon loadout came from the psycommu weaponry. Rather than a traditional set of funnels that fired beams, they launched drill-tipped wires that dug into enemies, bypassing both I-Fields and thick armor systems. While it would be no improvement against ninety percent of enemies, that last ten percent was killer. The built in psycho-frame and IAS would also improve Annerose's capabilities in combat. The increased size was annoying, to be sure, but not impossible to handle. She imagined there would be some squad reorganizing to fit the Neo Zeong in the deployment setup, but it wasn't critical.

It was the final piece of equipment that made it clear why Annerose and Alice had been offered it, however. The psycho-shard generator. It released a large cluster of hexagonal shards that, when properly arranged and powered by a strong Newtype, could completely block ranged weaponry.

Not mitigate. Not just beam weaponry. Not just missiles. Completely block any and all ranged weaponry.

Alice let out a long whistle. "This is an impressive piece of machinery. So what's the problem? Let's move now."

Annerose crossed her arms and started anxiously rubbing them. "Is that okay with you? Moving?"

Alice thought about it. "Yes? I don't really see the problem."

"It's just... here, the Great Zeong. It's where we made all our memories, y'know? I've done so much here, with you, and... I'm worried it wouldn't be the same, elsewhere. That you won't, I guess."

Slowly, Alice realized the problem. "You really think of me and the Great Zeong as one in the same, don't you?"

Annerose slowly nodded. "Yeah, kind of. I mean... you're built in there, now, right? Can you even be moved?"

Alice nodded. "Moved, copied, deleted, all of that, easily."

"That's something, but... Will it still be... you? Like," Annerose said, trailing off. The whole concept was clearly eating at her. "I've wondered, sometimes, what happens when you power off, or if your memory gets damaged, or if someone just copied you. What happens to you?"

Alice hummed in thought. "Well, think about it this way, right? Your body is made up of lots of little cells, right?"

Annerose nodded.

"But each individual cell dies off. Over time, you lose all of your cells that you had at any given time. Every seven years, your body is completely replaced. But you're still you, right?"

Annerose nodded again, rapt in attention.

"And I mean, even beyond just 'there is a unit we label Annerose.' I've touched you - touched your soul. You and I both were there, together."

Annerose blushed, obviously remembering all the times they've touched, but continued nodding.

"So there's something else, beyond all this collection of parts, that makes us, us. And that part is going to stay with you, Annerose. I guarantee it."

"... you sure?" Annerose asked, quietly.

Alice nodded. "And really, it isn't anywhere near as dangerous or exciting as you think it's going to be. The core of me is just a little eight cubic meter box with its own power supply. Just unhook me and drag me over to the next machine. It's more like changing my prosthetics than anything else."

The smile returned to Annerose's face. "That's reassuring to hear, actually. I didn't know much about how you were hooked up in here."

"Nothing to worry about. If you really wanted you could drag me out of here and hook me up in your room, if you ever retired from piloting."

"Might keep that in mind for when this is all over," Annerose smiled. "Assuming they don't draft you into permanent service."

Alice giggled. "I'd sure have something to say to that if you weren't still around. I'd miss you an awful lot."

"I would too." Annerose reached out to touch Alice's screen, closed her eyes, and suddenly - 

Alice couldn't describe it, really, properly. She heard how Annerose had experienced it, but that was from the sending end, interpreted through the lens of her experience. To Alice, it was like... wherever she went, whoever she was with, in the end, she normally felt alone. Inside her mind, there was only herself, and that was just how it had to be.

But for those moments, those eternal, shining, moments, there was Annerose, too. Inside her mind, with her.

At last, the two seperated. Annerose opened her eyes once more, smile wide on her face. "I love you, Alice."

Alice couldn't help but smile back. "I love you too. Let's make the move to the Neo Zeong, okay? And let's make lots of new memories there, together."

Annerose nodded. "Definitely."


End file.
